The American System is Broken

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the phrase, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.” It’s been ingrained in my brain to the point that I’ve become frustrated when something doesn’t make sense and I’m being prevented from doing anything to change it. Ironically, here I sit ready to plead a case for insanity. 

Not only has our country been impacted by a global pandemic, but we’ve also been forced to endure the lack of qualified officials making decisions for our lives. You might think I’m referencing the most recent approach Governor Abbot has taken on masks or the lack of direction from our federal government. While they do play a role, that’s not my gripe at the moment. 

As a concerned mother of two little Black boys, at this very moment, the email I received from our school district advising that we have one week to decide if our children should attend school in person or online is ludicrous. If you haven’t been paying attention since the country shut down in March, you may have missed how all of the systems we had in place have failed. 

Millions have lost their jobs and are now on unemployment if they’re lucky. Families can’t afford to pay their rent or mortgages. Many are being kicked off of their healthcare plans provided by the jobs they’ve lost. Students were forced to go to school online overnight although some educators had no experience working e-learning software. Parents were forced to teach and work from home. With one cough, our workforce, healthcare, economic, housing, and education systems have proven to not be as great as America likes to think. While this is nothing new to some of us, the experience for those who aren’t used to being told no has baked them a huge humble pie. 

We’ve been in this pandemic for months, and instead of taking the summer to implement a new normal from home, we’re now being forced to choose to be part of a system that’s designed to fail. The American school system is already suffering from inequities that mainly impact Black, Brown, and poor white communities. From the lack of resources to overcrowded classrooms, child homelessness, and poverty, our school system has continued to fail these communities Many of these communities didn’t have internet access to complete their school work. In hindsight, it appears that the system designed to fail these communities is now ok with leaving them behind while placing the blame on educators. 

The US Education system is hell-bent on making students sit in class from 8a.m. to 3p.m. not preparing them for a future that will eventually change the way we’ll exist. A few years ago, I became frustrated by this same idea of teaching when I taught history to middle school students. 

I taught all Black girls who had grown tired of the same old information that didn’t include them, nor prepare them for their future. The books that were provided were from 1999 — in 2016. I purchased an online book and introduced them to the material through Google Classroom. I had to not only teach typing and citing skills, I had to teach the state-required material that excluded Black historical figures. After nine months, my students had finally gotten the hang of it. They scored the highest on the state test in the entire school. Why? Because they were introduced to a new way of learning. 

Fast forward four years later, and schools are still trying to force seven subjects into our children. This makes absolutely no sense. Why are they not being taught how to thrive in a new society? 

Since the 1970s, the country of Finland has been changing the way their children learn to create a better society. They have moved to a four-day school week. Students can learn about subjects that matter instead of wasting almost two decades learning information they will never use.

Finland educators are paid respectable wages. Education is free for all children and so are their meals. Do you know why? It’s because their society said “Expecting different results after doing the same thing over and over is insane. We must change the way we think. We must change the way we learn. We must change our entire society,” and it worked! Now, why not us? 

Is it because we’re afraid that everything we knew to be great was mediocre and we’ll have to admit our country isn’t as amazing as we like to believe? The Rona has already proven that. Or is it something deeper? I have a theory. 

In the early 1930s, the US created public housing for white workers that were built to last while Black public housing was not up to code and was meant to be overcrowded. As industries and infrastructure expanded, white Americans were offered incentives to move into suburban homes and have low-interest loans. Black Americans were, in turn, allowed to move into former white public housing and restricted from being able to gain access to suburban communities. If you add to the fact that political trade-offs were made to ensure Black communities could not benefit from fair interest home loans or decent wages, you have underfunded and developed communities designed to fail. See the Fair Labor Standards Act by Franklin Roosevelt. More on this can be found in The Color of Law.

What does all of this have to do with Finland, the American Education System, and The Rona?

The reason why Finland was able to thrive was because they cared about what affected their country as a whole. This included its lowest class of citizens. Historically, the US has designed a system built around the idea of racism. What do I mean by this? Here’s an example:

Black Women make 60 cents for every 1 dollar earned by a white man.She’s not allowed to move into a middle-class neighborhood because she can’t afford the cost of living.Her children aren’t allowed to attend the schools that offer additional programs like STEM. So they attend schools in their neighborhood where resources are low.Her neighborhood is in a food desert, so a quality grocery store offering healthy produce is unavailable. The place where her children can get a decent meal is at school.Due to The Rona, some locations aren’t able to offer free meals that she can access — minimum wage is still $7.25, so she has to work more than one job.Her children still have to complete their work, but they don’t have internet access. There’s no one to assist with their homework. So they either fall behind or give up.Her access to decent healthcare is limited because she can’t afford copays. She can’t take off from work because she has to pay rent. She has to put food on the table.The Rona comes in and one of her jobs lays her off.The kids are hungry. The rent needs to be paid. They have to attend school. She can’t afford to take off from work if one of them is sick. 

I wish her story wasn’t true, but it is; and it’s only true because our society has allowed this to be her story. Through policy, stories like hers exist. But what if we took this time to restructure the system? By restructuring I mean rip it apart and start over. I don’t have all of the answers, but I know that we can’t keep doing the same over again.